Advances in battery technology are expected to provide reliable power sources for electrically operated passenger vehicles. One requirement for such vehicles is the provision of battery recharging apparatus. The recharging of a vehicle's battery when parked at the owner's home may be achieved in a relatively straight forward manner. However, the widespread use of battery powered vehicles necessitates that recharging also be accomplished at other locations. By example, it may often be required to recharge a vehicle's battery while parked at a remote location, such as an office building, factory, hotel, shopping center, airport, or train station. To accomplish recharging of the vehicle's battery at a remote location there must also be provided a reliable and accurate method of accounting for the power consumed in recharging the battery.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,418, entitled "Microprocessor Electric Vehicle Charging and Parking Meter System Structure and Method" Meese et al disclose a system for charging an electric vehicle at a parking location. The system may be operated by a charge card.
Meese et al. do not teach the use of a data entry means, such as a keypad, that permits manual data entry from a user of the battery charger. A manual data entry means would be useful for entering, by example, an account number or an authorization number, such as a Personal Identification Number (PIN). A manual data entry means could also be employed to enter other information, such as a battery type or characteristic. Furthermore, the system of Meese et al. does not appear to require any authorization prior to charging a battery. Instead, this system appears to store credit card charges for subsequent transfer, with a central processor unit validating the customer account number. Furthermore, the teaching of Meese et al. is not seen to permit the use of a card containing a memory device. Instead, this system requires two insertions of a card to achieve proper operation by locking and unlocking the charging cable.